Brazil's Rousseff To Visit Washington After Canceling Earlier Trip Over Surveillance Concerns

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff will visit America's capital this summer, U.S. President Barack Obama said Saturday in Panama City. Rousseff's visit will come nearly two years after she canceled a similar trip to protest U.S. surveillance programs, the Associated Press reported.

Her visit to Washington, D.C., is slated for June 30. Rousseff said she is pleased by Obama's invitation and looks forward to the visit, the AP noted.

The U.S. and Brazil are among 35 nations gathered in Panama this week for the annual Summit of the Americas. Earlier on Saturday, Rousseff criticized the Obama administration for imposing sanctions against Venezuelan officials over alleged human-rights abuses.

"This good moment for hemispheric relations can no longer allow unilateral measures and policies of isolation in general, and they are always counterproductive and ineffective," Rousseff said at the summit, the AP reported. "For that reason we reject the adoption of sanctions against Venezuela."

Rousseff canceled a state visit to the U.S. in October 2013 after she learned that American spies had targeted Brazil's government and citizens. A leaked memo from the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) revealed Rousseff's communications with aides had been intercepted. The NSA also hacked the computer network of Petrobras, the state-owned oil company, and separately collected data on billions of emails and telephone calls made in Brazil.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden invited Rousseff earlier this month to reschedule her visit. The Brazilian president is reportedly demanding a guarantee that her name is taken off the list of foreign leaders under NSA surveillance, Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo said, citing two unnamed sources familiar with the situation.

Rousseff is experiencing the roughest period of her two-term presidency, beset by a plummeting approval rating, a widening kickback and bribery scandal with Petrobras and a once-booming economy that's threatening to slip into a recession.